In the 9/13 issue of Genii, Caleb Wiles had an interesting effect in his Ringside column called Eye of Tyr, adapted from a Wiseman and Lamont Color-Changing Deck effect with an assist from Matt Mello's "Stop." I like it; but for my own uses, I think it would be stronger if it were tightened up, made to play vertically so more people can see it, and invited greater audience involvement. So here's what I've done.

STAND-UP EYE OF TYR

After talking about subliminal messages, the performer says that he's going to try to send a message to a participant. He asks her to hold out her hands, and he deals a few cards off the top into her hand face-up: he displays the face of each one before it lands in her hand, and on each card is a letter so that they eventually spell out, S-A-Y S-T-O-P. The performer pauses expectantly; when she says stop, it gets a laugh.

He says that she received the message perfectly, and asks her to please say the word again—but this time, wherever she'd like in the deck (while he does a face-up Dribble Force, so no tabletop is necessary). The 3 of Spades is selected, and its bottom edge is tucked face-out into his jacket's outer breast pocket so everybody can keep an eye on it.

Ah-Ha Moment One: the performer reiterates that she saw all the faces and could have chosen any of them (spreading the deck to show the faces to the audience). But out of the entire deck (which he turns over and spreads to show the red backs to the audience), she chose the 3 of Spades—exactly the one he had been hoping she would (plucking it from the breast pocket and turning it around to show that its back is contrast colored)!

Ah-Ha Moment Two: (Pocketing the deck, so the only cards in play are the 3 of Spades and the cards in the participant's hands) the performer explains how this incredible thing happened. He reminds her that he had been trying to influence her subliminally, and reveals that she was influenced to choose the 3 of Spades for seven reasons—and she's holding them.

Of the cards he showed her at the beginning, only two of them had letters on their faces that were underlined—the "S" in "Say" and the "S" in "Stop"—and one of them was the only 3 in the bunch, while the other was the only Spade. He removes each of those cards from her hands, displays them meaningfully, and tucks them into his breast pocket behind the 3 of Spades.

Ah-Ha Moment Three: But those two cards were only two reasons she was influenced, and they were pretty subtle. So, just to be safe, the performer had all the other cards in her hands working to influence her too. (He picks up the face-up stack.) Because while she was consciously concentrating on the fronts, the backs were subconsciously telling her all along: (turning the stack over to show the topmost back to the whole audience—it has a 3 of Spades drawn on it; and he shows that they all do as he deals them back into her hands one at a time) 3 of Spades, 3 of Spades, 3 of Spades, 3 of Spades, 3 of Spades!

With these changes, I think this effect will play a lot bigger and elicit from the card-holding participant some hilariously outsized responses. Enjoy!

Thanks for sharing this, Neil. This is exactly what I was hoping for when I started writing the column. This is a great variation that really tightens things up and brings it off of the table. Thanks so much for sharing!